GOUDARZI & YOUNG / ETB TEAM OF THE WEEK: The Kilgore Bulldogs

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week will return to its regular day, Monday, this coming week (Monday, Dec. 16).

For three years, Chapel Hill managed to escape when playing Kilgore in the University Interscholastic League’s high school football playoffs.

This year – no.

But make no mistake: this past week was not about the Chapel Hill Bulldogs, not about the issues they had this year, whatever those were; not about their health; not about the schedule; not about – not about ANYTHING Chapel Hill.

This was about the Kilgore High School Bulldogs.

This was all about getting past the regional finals, and goals beyond that. This wasn’t “Chapel Hill is our Super Bowl.”

That’s not how Kilgore rolls.

Coach Clint Fuller and his staff had a few goals before the 2024 season began, among them: win your non-district games with one of the state’s most challenging schedules; win your games in District 9-4A, Division I; win the district championship; win first, second and third-round games; beat whomever is in the regional final, whether it was Chapel Hill or not.

And that’s why, for the week of Dec. 2 through Dec. 7, the Kilgore Bulldogs are the Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week.

Now, there are two more goals in front of Kilgore: one of them is this Friday – that’s right, Friday the 13^th – at New Caney’s Randall Reed Stadium, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff of the UIL Class 4A-Division I semifinals. They face La Vernia – we’re sure you’ve heard – and the winner will play for the 4A-DI state championship next week where the Dallas Cowboys also play, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

If Kilgore can accomplish this week’s goal, beating La Vernia, it’ll have the chance at the number-one goal: winning a state championship next weekend.

Make no mistake: the last three years ending at the hands of the same team was a point of frustration for not just Kilgore’s coaches, but the players and the fans.

In 2021, Kilgore was the district champion and beat Chapel Hill in the regular season (fairly handily: 41-20), but lost to them in the rematch, played at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium, in an overtime score of 41-35.

The next year, in the 2022 season, Chapel Hill managed to get by Kilgore twice: 32-20 in the regular season, and 24-21 in the regional finals, again played at Rose Stadium.

And then last year, Kilgore ran through CHHS like a hot knife through butter, 39-16, in the regular season, only to slip 21-19 at Longview’s Lobo Stadium in the playoffs.

So the frustration was there.

How did Kilgore respond?

The Ragin’ Red this season had two close losses: a ridiculously-close 24-22 loss at Gilmer on Sept. 13 that literally could have just as easily gone the other way, and a head-scratching loss at home to Henderson, 27-24, on a field goal as time expired, a game that probably any Kilgore player or coach – and maybe Henderson, too – will tell you the Bulldogs just made too many first-half mistakes to overcome.

Kilgore may look back at that loss as what spurred this run.

The next week, a very-much back-to-business Kilgore team visited Chapel Hill and, while they were not facing CHHS quarterback Demetrius Brisbon, they did face much-heralded Texas signee Rickey Stewart, Chapel Hill’s running back, as well as all-everything linebacker/receiver/punter Trevor Brooks, and the bulk of the yellow-and-blue Bulldogs’ starters.

The result: a 42-7 Kilgore win. A rout. A gully-washer, if you will. The closest that game got was the coin toss. Kilgore left no doubt. They held Stewart to 43 yards on 10 carries, and held Malik Gee to just 60 passing yards.

What happened in the rematch last week, at Forney’s City Bank Stadium? Well, it was a somewhat surprising 30-6 runaway: surprising not that Kilgore won, but that Chapel Hill, who had blistered three playoff teams before that, just didn’t seem to show up.

Maybe because this year’s Kilgore team – Kilgore’s players – figured out that they weren’t intimidated by Chapel Hill. Maybe because they were determined to get over the hump.

Or maybe it was because they were just flat-out better.

Isaiah Watters had 128 yards rushing and a touchdown on 22 carries, and caught six balls for 25 yards and another touchdown. Javon Towns had five catches for 104 yards and a score. Kayson Brooks completed 17-of-26 passes for 208 yards and three touchdowns: Lakeyleon Graves caught one, too, a four-catch, 79-yard day.

La’Perrion Graves had a ridiculous 18-tackle game. Ja’Kalen Sheffield had another interception and 10 tackles to go along with it.

That was a wrap, for the win, and for Chapel Hill’s season.

Kilgore is a complete team. And another complete team is the staff at Goudarzi & Young, a firm founded by Gilmer’s own Brent Goudarzi in 1997, and has risen to the top of its field not only in Texas, but in the U.S.

Goudarzi and his partner, Marty Young, have become the standard of excellence in their areas of practice, which include car and 18-wheeler accidents, insurance claims, property and product injuries, oilfield injuries, burn injuries, and wrongful death. Their opponents in the courtroom want no part of Goudarzi & Young: their firm has achieved verdicts of $730 million, $260 million, and $101 million, to name a few, and settlements of $150 million, $140 million, and $125 million.

Goudarzi was named the National (National!) Trial Lawer of the Year in both 2022 and 2023, and is the current president of the National Trial Lawyers Association.

So – as they say – they hope you never need them, but if you do, they’re here to help, with offices in Gilmer and in Longview, and an excellent website, Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P. – Tyler & Longview Personal Injury Lawyers.

Their hours are 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day. Reach them by phone at (903) 843-2544, or toll-free at (800) 256-5169, or by emailing goudarziyoung@goudarzi-young.com.

And congratulations to the Kilgore Bulldogs, the Goudarzi & Young / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week!